Numerous methods and means are known for holding rigid tubular articles, such as pipes, fixed relative to a supporting surface or for holding more than one such tubular article fixed relative to another. Some such arrangements permit a limited amount of very gradual reorientation or "creep" as, for example, by spacers of stacked pipes in Warnock U.S. Pat. No. 2,977,405, and in Tunnessen U.S. Pat. No. 3,055,398. A pair of flexible tubular articles, such as hoses, may be held in fixed relationship, such as side-by-side, or in layered pairs, as disclosed in British Pat. No. 893,448.
Such arrangements are acceptable under fixed orientation, or under gradual reorientation, but much less than satisfactory where the supported articles move frequently and/or rapidly relative to one another and, in doing so, rub against the supporting means or each other. Examples of such unfavorable environments are found in reciprocating machinery, such as hydraulic or pneumatic lines on backhoes, jackhammers, trash pickup trucks, and vehicle steering mechanisms, and under conditions of vibration attributable to such machinery or to engines, high transport speeds, or other factors.
Chafing of pressurized lines against their clamping or other supporting means or against each other shortens the useful life of the lines themselves and poses not only an unnecessary risk of equipment damage and of excessive downtime or maintenance, but also an unacceptable hazard to the life and limb of users whenever resulting wear, induced or aggravated by chafing, causes such a line to burst while in use. Similarly induced excessive wear upon electrical cables is productive of arcing or grounding of power or scrambling of signals or data, with disastrous resulting effects, such as when in use on airplanes, bridges, oil rigs, ships, etc.
There is an urgent need for improved clamping methods and means to hold and support at least a pair of cables, hoses, or similar flexible tubular articles while enabling them to undergo frequent and/or rapid repetitive movement without chafing.